Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Reaches New 52-Week High – Here’s What Happened

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$52.59 and last traded at C$52.48, with a volume of 5328044 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$52.09.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GWO shares. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. CIBC upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$54.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Great-West Lifeco currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$52.22.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of C$48.99 billion, a PE ratio of 12.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is C$48.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$46.99.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.555 per share. This represents a $2.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total value of C$26,721.58. Also, Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total value of C$438,927.25. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 60,062 shares of company stock worth $3,149,764. Corporate insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

Great-West Lifeco Company Profile

Great-West Lifeco is one of the three big Canadian life insurance firms. With just under half of the firm’s profit and revenue in Canada, Great-West also operates in the U.S. and Europe. In Canada, Great-West provides both individual and group insurance. In the United States, Great-West operates Putnam Investments and defined-contribution recordkeeping firm Empower Retirement.